Love Sucks, Mutation Bites
by Xx.Cougar.xX
Summary: NOT A KurtXPietro STORY! Mystique recruits a Chinese jungle mutant that catches the eyes of a certain blue, furry elf. Will he be able to bring her to the good side before she's in too deep? PietroXOC and KurtXOC HALTED, CURRENTLY WORKING ON
1. In The Jungle

Chapter 1: In The Jungle, The Mighty Jungle The Vampyre Eats Tonight

**Disclaimer: I don't X-men, Evolution or otherwise, and if I did, there would be a whole lot more love for the Fuzzy Dude =3. I do, however, own my OC, so please don't use without permission.**

_A/N: I love reviews and constructive critizism that actually helps me do a better job, while flames are fed to my pet Chimera, Snuffly, while I laugh maniacally on my giant floating chocolate chip cookie. My chapters, unless I'm hit with a major case of writer's block, will be between 2,000 and 2,500 words. It's not really revelant, but I'm just putting it out there._

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><p>A light breeze blew through the misty forest of Motuo county in China as a small group of tall blonde men in long white cloaks gathered around a Monban tribal men dressed in thick wool robes. Little did they know...they were being watched.<p>

Crouched against a thick branch above them was a thin creature, the silhouette human except for the long tail swishing left and right as dark molten silver eyes scanned over the scene, lingering on the needles reflecting bright flashes of light for a moment before standing and jumping away.

As the figure landed in a small oasis, its large, cat-like ears flicked at the distant sound of the Monbans whispering to the outsiders, "The Huli Jing hides here, in the forest,"

In the bright light pouring through, it was apparent that, for the most part, this figure was a teenaged girl, but instead of smooth human skin, she was covered in a thick black pelt of fur flecked with white stripes, and sharp fangs and claws protruded from her small mouth and paw-like hands and feet. To the natives, she was known as 'Huli Jing', one of the many Fox Spirits known for their mischievous nature and ability to shape shift. At least they got the shape shifting part right, though she was no mythical creature, just a mutant.

Her eyes flashed bright yellow as her pupils thinned to small slits at the sudden closeness of a small group of white-cloaked men. She gathered up her strength in her legs before springing up to a tall tree and making her way back into the forest.

But just as she jumped across a bare area, she saw, from the corner of her eye, the pale, fake colors of the Monba robes, and heard their yell of victory.

They had seen her, a shiver rippled through her fur as she began leaping through the trees for her life. Behind her, she heard the whizzing of sharp knives flying past her and *_thunk*_ing against thick trees. A high-pitched, monkey-like laugh escaped from the Huli Jing's fanged mouth as the humans struggled to keep up with her.

Once the men's noises were out of her ear-shot, she let herself fall to the forest floor, looking behind her with a devilish smile. Not matter how smart humans are, they are impossibly slow when outside their true habitat; cities.

Just as she decided to find herself a good hiding place, her acute hearing picked up an all-too familiar and threatening noise; the cocking of a gun. Looking forward, her large eyes picked out the outline of a man kneeling a good twenty feet away from her, hidden in the bushes, with a large rifle between his hands.

Quickly, the Huli Jing jumped up, flapping her arms as they grew midnight black feathers, and then turned into large wings so she could escape above his line of sight. When she looked down, she was high above the tops of the forest canopy, but she saw the metallic glint of guns staring up at her.

Her eyes bled coal black as she saw beads of metal zooming towards her before everything went dark.

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><p>When she awoke, her sensitive ears heard a circus of noises; murmurs, click, beeps, all sorts of things. Opening her eyes slightly, they were blinded by flashes of bright lights, so she shut them quickly. There was an escalation of sounds at her movement that started hurting her ears, but she managed to decipher a few words of Tibetan and another language, the one she heard when the natives spoke to tourists…English?<p>

Above all of the murmurs, a singular man's voice boomed over the rest in strong English, explaining…something. She heard the words "Fox Spirit", and knew that he was talking about her.

Hours passed…or minutes just moving very slowly, before silence slowly took over, and she finally decided to open her eyes, finding herself in a large metal room with none of the see-through covers those humans called 'windows'. Looking at herself, she was tied down to a metal bed perpendicular to the floor by metal bars around her chest, her privates, both hands, and both feet.

Sighing, she did an experimental squirm only to feel a shock reverberate through her shoulder, forearm, and thigh; shot wounds, she reasoned. Blinking away bright, rainbow-colored lights, she almost didn't hear the whispering behind her.

Tilting her head as much as she could, she saw a tall, thin boy with pure white hair hiding in the corner behind her. "Psst!" He called, and looked around quickly once she saw him before walking up to her.

Instantly, instincts kicked in as her eyes turned dark silver and she started growling. She was sick of being a human's play-thing. But instead of being scared, angry, or any normal reaction, the boy actually brought a finger up to his lips in a commonly accepted "be quiet" gesture.

"Shh, we don't want the people outside to hear you." He whispered, slinking towards her, stopping for a moment and giving her a strange look. "Can you understand me?"

She paused, giving him a look she knew he would recognize as 'of course I can, stupid', which made him shrug. "Well, I wouldn't know, now, would I? From what I've been told, you've spent your whole life in China, so why would you know English?" the boy replied as he made his way over to a large metal contraption with blinking lights and buttons. "Now, I'm going to free you, but you can't just run away. My…friend and I are going to help you."

Seconds later, with a long series of beeps, the metal bands contracted into the bed, releasing the bloody, furry girl from her confinement. Stepping down from the metal bed, she looked long and hard at the holes in her body. "Come here," She rasped in her rough, unused voice, and the boy obeyed.

"Ouch, look, we gotta go, are you gonna be able to make-" He started, but the girl quickly grabbed him by the wrist, and suddenly a burst of rainbow lights sparked from her large eyes. Once she was done, the boy looked at her with astonishment, which made her smirk. "You're healed."

But before she could reply, a thin, dark skinned boy with long dark brown hair burst into the door behind them; gunshots and yells could suddenly be heard. "What are you waiting for Pietro? You got her, so come on! Mystique can't wait forever!" He yelled, and the white-haired boy nodded quickly before turning to the girl.

"Come here, I can get us out really fast," He told her, and she smiled before whizzing over to the door held open by the other boy.

"I realize," She replied, reveling in his shocked face.

"You stole my powers!" He yelled, but she just shook her head.

"Borrowed, you still have them," She assured him, though he had to take a quick run to make sure.

"This'll be easier than I thought," Pietro commented as he motioned for her to follow him before rushing off at extreme speed.

Soon the duo was outside the building next to a beaten up black car. Behind them, they watched the tall metallic building that they had left crumble to the ground, as the boy from before walked out through the smoke.

"You did that?" She asked the boy, who smirked in response.

"Name's Lance Alvers, but everyone calls me Avalanche," He said, and Pietro knocked his hand against his forehead.

"Sorry, with the whole sneaking around thing, I forgot to properly introduce myself. I'm Quicksilver, but the public knows me as Pietro Maximof." Pietro offered, but Zarya just nodded. She knew that already.

"You have a name?" Lance asked, and the girl paused.

"Zarya, my mother called me Zarya Lin." She replied quietly.

"Well Zarya, how would you like to join us?" A tall woman with short brown hair wearing a dress suit asked as she climbed out of the driver's side of the car.

"Why?" She asked simply, and the woman chuckled.

"Because, we're like you," She responded, and Zarya gasped as she watched the woman sprout long red hair and her skin turn dark blue. "And I can teach you to control this miraculous power of yours."

Zarya nodded. "Okay…Where are we going?"

"A small little town called Bayville in New York, America." She answered.

"But first, don't you think that you should, probably get some clothes on?" Pietro asked, and Zarya glanced down at her furry, naked self.

"Why?" She asked innocently, and both boys suddenly burst out laughing.

"Umm, normal people don't run around nude," Pietro offered. "For one."

"It's okay, I planned for such an occasion." The woman, probably Mystique, replied as she popped the trunk and rummaged through. "As I am a shape-shifter myself, I can understand how clothes tend to be a bit of a bother." She pulled out a pair of jeans and a button-down white tee.

Zarya took the clothes, though she didn't look too comfortable once she put them on, and climbed into the car in next to Lance and Pietro in the back seat.

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><p>"So you can shape-shift and steal other powers?" Pietro asked after a few moments of silence as Mystique drove them towards the nearest airport.<p>

Zarya shook her head. "I don't 'steal' anything. I absorb energy through people, plants, and animals. If I don't, I get sick," She replied slowly. "With mutants, I absorb powers too, but it only lasts as long as the touch."

"A psionic vampire," Mystique offered. "You live off of the energy of others. Can you do anything else?"

"I can actually 'feel' the energy, especially through humans. I can read their emotions." She answered, "And, if I focus, I can collect that energy."

"Cool." Lance said with awe, but Zarya didn't seem up to talking much longer; her eyes started dropping and she yawned loudly a few times.

Within minutes, she was out, curled up next to the passenger window, and the two boys noticed something strange afterwards.

"Dude, look, she's normal." Pietro pointed out, and Lance leaned over, smirking.

Now that Zarya was unconscious, her thick black pelt had melted away, along with her other feline features. Now she was just a normal girl with dark olive skin, bow-shaped lips, and tangled long black hair.

"Of course she does, boys. It's not like that was her true form, just the most convenient." Mystique replied, shrugging. "When unconscious, however, we shape shifters generally return to what you would call normal."

"Weird," Lance said, which Pietro totally agreed.

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><p><em>AN: Read and review please! You know you want to click the button! _


	2. Sweet Home New York

Chapter 2: Sweet Home New York, Where The Skies Are Filled With Fog

**Disclaimer: I don't X-men, Evolution or otherwise, because if I did, there would be a whole lot more love for the Fuzzy Dude and Pietro (forgot him last chapter) =3. I do own my OC, however.**

_A/N: Reviews keep me posting, remember that. __BTW __I'm altering the time flow of the original series for my own purposes __between the time Mystique gets back in season 2 and the season finale. And I'm pretending that Boom Boom came back after getting kicked out because she didn't want to go back to Xavier's. Sue Me._

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><p>Zarya awoke to get on the plane and spent the flight working on her English, but by the time they got to New York again, she was pretty drained. Unwittingly, during her ride to the "Brotherhood Boardinghouse" she left Pietro stuck in-between her and a drooling, mumbling Lance. For conversation, all the speed demon had was Mystique, but luckily, they had something to talk about; Zarya.<p>

"Remind me again why we went to all this trouble to find this girl? I mean, we already have Wanda, aren't we ready to strike?" Pietro asked after a long silence.

"Yes, but I don't want Xavier and his X-Men to get in the way like last time." Mystique replied. "With our new recruit, I'm sure Charles will make every attempt to turn her to their side. But you are all to tell her that Xavier brainwashes unwitting mutants without their consent."

"Okay, that's not too hard." Pietro replied, kicking his feet up on the arm rest. "It's not much of a stretch really."

Mystique smiled into the rear-view mirror briefly before getting back to business. "When we get back to the mansion, I need to run an errand, so I'm charging you with the looking after Zarya until I'm back."

Pietro sat up, feeling insulted. Since when did being the bad guy include babysitting? "What?"

"Fine, then I'll charge _Avalanche_ with guarding such an important asset." She replied nonchalantly, making Pietro stop for a second to think.

So the options were between babysitting and Lance rubbing the "guarding an important assest" thing in his face... "No, it's fine, I can do it, no problem," He replied, sitting back with his hands cradling his neck.

"Good. Because you're also her guardian any other time that I'm away." Mystique put in slyly, making Pietro frown, but he didn't bother to argue and chance Mystique giving Lance the job; that rock shaking exuse of a boy doesn't deserve anything important.

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><p>Finally, after hours of semi-silence -Lance kept muttering his girlfriend's name under his breath- they arrived at a beaten up, old mansion. Home sweet home.<p>

Lance woke up as soon as they parked, running to his jeep and leaving, as did Mystique, though she explicitly assigned him a duty as babysitter; introducing Zarya to her new home.

Unfortunately, she was still sleeping, so he shook her awake. "Come on, time to get up," He said, not paying attention, and suddenly found himself pinned against the seat by a growling, apparently very angry Zarya.

"Hey!" He yelled, but shrunk back at the sight of her blood red eyes. "Hey Zarya, don't you recognize me? It's Quicksilver, remember? I saved you from being a science project?" He asked, trying to smile, but winced when he heard leather rip, too scared to move his head and find out the cause.

Zarya had clenched her fists, now equipped with super sharp claws, as she sniffed the thin boy shaking in front of her. The peculiar airy scent of the boy reminded her of her previous exploits; being captured, then saved, and brought to America. Almost instantly her fury died down and her appearance returned to normal. "…Sorry." She told Pietro quietly before getting off of him and leaving the car.

"Hey, no problem, I totally get it, with the whole living-in-the-jungle thing. Just don't eat me, okay?" Pietro replied, suddenly at her side with a carefree grin on his face as he leaned on one leg.

Zarya stared for a moment at Pietro, dumbfounded by his quick recovery; he must have been terrified a moment ago. "You are a very strange boy, you know this, right?" She asked, making Pietro laugh.

"Course I am, but that's why the chicks love me," He said before a sudden breeze caused Zarya to shiver and her black pelt return. "The fur again?" He asked, and Zarya glared.

"Yeah, cuz these clothes are just sooo_ cozy,_" She commented cynically; sarcasm was the first thing she caught onto during her English lessons.

Pietro chuckled. This girl wasn't half bad for being Jungle Jane. "Well, you can file a complaint after I give you a tour of Brotherhood of Bayville Boarding House, okay?" He joked, making Zarya chuckle.

"Okay, just no super speed, okay?" She replied, and Pietro looked crestfallen for a moment, but recovered quickly; leading her into the broken down mansion at a normal pace.

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><p>"Who's the new chick, yo?" A short, pale boy asked as they entered the kitchen, crouched down in between his legs. "She looks <em>weird<em>," He commented, staring at Zarya's thick fur.

"You're one to talk, Toad. She's Mystique's new recruit," Pietro replied angrily, "Just ignore him, he's a total idiot."

"Hey! That hurts, dude," The Toad said pitilessly, bouncing over to Zarya's side to get a better look. "The name's Todd Tolensky. So, you stuck like that or something?"

"Leave me alone," Zarya growled, but the Toad just kept bugging her until she started to get _really_ pissed.

Without warning she bared her fangs and turned to the boy. "Go AWAY!" She roared, making the entire house shake.

"Woah. Remind me not to piss you off," Pietro commented as Todd hopped away as fast as his mutated legs would carry him. "You might, uh, wanna try being **nice** to the others, you know, smile and introduce yourself?" He offered as he smiled wide for an example.

They made their way into the trashed living room to find a large, obese boy with a blonde Mohawk and an equally blonde girl playing video games. From their shouts, it seemed as if the girl was winning, at least until Pietro -using his super speed- paused the game.

"What the hell was that for, Pietro? Couldn't you see that I was winning?" The girl asked, pouting.

"Tabitha? What are you doing back? Mystique is gonna _freak_ when she sees you!" Pietro yelled, but Tabitha just laughed.

"Like I'm afraid of Miss big, blue, and bad? Yeah right," She replied, but then noticed Zarya. "Ohh, who's the new girl?"

Zarya nodded at her, trying to curve her lips up in a smile like Pietro said. "My name is Zarya Lin."

"Cool name, I'm Tabitha Smith, but I'm also called Boom Boom." She replied with a bright smile before nudging the other boy hard.

"Oh, and I'm Fred Dukes or the Blob. Maybe you've seen me on T.V., I used to do Monster Truck Pulls?" He offered, but Zarya shook her head, not sure how to explain that she never watched T.V.

Pietro came to the rescue. "Look, she's not exactly tech. literate, we just took her from the middle of a Chinese forest where she's been living her entire life." He explained, and Tabitha gasped.

"You mean, you don't know about the internet or cell phones or…**_CD's_**?" She asked, horrified, and Zarya shook her head, not quite understanding what the big deal was.

"I've heard and seen them, through spying, but that's it." She replied, and Tabitha stood up.

"That's it, you're getting taught. Now." And without warning, Tabitha dragged Zarya away, leaving the boys confused.

"Hey! Who's supposed to finish the game with me?" Fred called, and Zarya heard Pietro offer before Tabitha dragged her upstairs.

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><p>By the time Mystique finally walked into the mansion, Pietro had already kicked Fred's butt ten times in a row, and Fred was now holding a couch over his head, threatening the speed mutant.<p>

"Pietro…Where's Zarya?" she asked, looking around for signs of the girl, but Pietro shrugged.

"I dunno, Boom Boom's had her up in her room for a while now," He replied, looking at the clock. "About an hour or so."

Mystique growled darkly. "What! Boom Boom's back! And you let her be alone with our new recruit! You idiot!" She yelled.

"Woah! Calm down, Tabitha's not **all** bad. I'm sure she's just teaching Zarya how to be a lady, ya know?" Pietro reminded her, and Mystique pondered for a moment.

"Hmm, you may be right. For once, Tabitha could actually be a help…Zarya wouldn't exactly fit in in Bayville without some girl assistance." Mystique replied, "And we don't want to catch Xavier's attention until she's completely on our side. Luckily her brainwaves are too animal for Cerebro to get a good reading on her right now, and either way, she has no records to be identified with."

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><p><em><strong>With Tabitha, Upstairs<strong>_

"Okay, where are we going to start?" Tabitha asked, dancing up the staircase, but stopped when she noticed Zarya wasn't following. Looking back, Zarya was kneeling down, shaking harder than Pietro after he chugged a Super Slushie. "What's wrong?" She asked, then noticed Wanda's door was slightly ajar. "Wanda! Leave her alone!" She yelled and the door closed with a slam.

"No…she didn't do anything…" Zarya murmured, struggling to stand. "I was just so…overwhelmed by her anger."

"How'd you know about Wanda's…temperament?" Tabitha wondered, and Zarya tried to smile again.

"That's one of my powers, I can feel other people's emotions." She answered, then stared over at the door. "So why is this…Wanda so angry?"

Tabitha shrugged. "From what the boys could tell me, Wanda's got abandonment issues with her dad and brother, you know, Pietro? Apparently they put her in a funny farm because her powers were so out of control." She said, and then explained further at Zarya's confused expression. "We call her the Red Witch because she can do these weird hexes…they tend to make things explode. But whatever, she's no big deal. Come into my humble abode!"

Zarya looked at her strangely as Tabitha threw open the door to her room with a florish. "Abode? What's that?" She asked when Tabitha sat down on her bed.

"You really don't know anything about anything, do you?" Tabitha commented, sending out waves of sympathy. Standing up, she made her way over for a closer investigation, only to nearly be knocked out by Zarya's…natural odor. "Ugh, girl, you need a bath more than Toad!" She exclaimed and thus pulled her into the bathroom.

"Okay, since I'm pretty sure you've never touched soap and shampoo, I'll explain. You scrub your body with soap until the dirt and smell is gone, and then wash your hair with shampoo to clean it and conditioner to untangle it." She pointed to each item as she explained. "Oh, and make sure to take your clothes off and get wet first, turning the left nozzle this way lets out cold water here, and turning the other nozzle lets out hot water from the same place. You'll probably want a mix of the two. When you're done, use these towels to dry yourself, one for your body and one for your hair, you have so much of it. Got it?"

Zarya nodded, "I think so." She said, and Tabitha let her alone to her business.

Undressing quickly, Zarya sighed. Being human was so hard, it was much easier living with tigers and wolves and fending for her life. "Might as well as get done with this…" She said to herself before stepping into the bathtub. "Oh, I better get rid of my fur," She realized, and her fur melted away.

About a half hour later, a toweled Zarya walked out of the bathroom, her long hair silky and smooth.

"Hey, you actually look kind of cute clean," Pietro commented from behind her, making her jump a little. "Woah, don't freak. I didn't mean to scare you, Mystique just wanted me to check up on you."

Zarya felt her cheeks burn all of a sudden at her semi-nakedness, and even sprouted dark green scales to hide her bare skin. "You didn't scare me…I was just…preoccupied." She replied haughtily, not even bothering to look at the boy as she pushed past him and went into Tabitha's room, slamming the door behind her while focusing on removing her scales.

Pietro stared at the closed door for a moment. "Whatever, be that way," Pietro called before leaving in a huff.

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><p>"What was that about?" Tabitha asked but Zarya just shook her head, so Tabitha shrugged. "Boys will boys. I'm sure he thought that you might get out of the shower naked, so he wanted a peek, not that I blame him, you're kind of hot." Tabitha commented as she looked Zarya up and down.<p>

"Hot? I'm actually rather cold." She replied, not understanding the statement.

Tabitha chuckled, "No, not _that_ kind of hot, you know, pretty? I _love_ your skin, it's so dark, like a super tan, and those big eyes of yours are to die for. Is it just me, or do they change color?" She asked.

Zarya nodded. "Apparently they change depending on my mood. I never really realized, though. Never bothered to look." She replied nonchalantly.

"Cool. Well, we should get to lesson number 1; clothes!" Tabitha exclaimed as she stood up and motioned to the numerous shirts on her bed. "You're lucky I like to change my style every once and a while."

Zarya sighed again. She knew what this was about; what humans called fashion. This was going to be a looong day.


	3. Boom Boom Room

Chapter 3: Boom Boom Wants Zarya In Her Room, Spend The Night Together, From Now Until Forever

**Disclaimer: I don't X-men, you know the rest by now**

_A/N: I'm serious about reviews, people. No more chapters unless I get some feedback, good or bad. _

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><p>And it was. Hours later, Zarya was introduced to retro, punk, tomboy, and girly styles, and found out that she wasn't fond of pink or ruffles of any kind. Zarya was clothed in a very tomboy cargo pants-black leather tank combo when Tabitha decided to move on. "Now for make-up," Tabitha purred, pulling out a small, hand sized plastic object.<p>

"Oh no," She replied, standing up and backing away, shaking her head. "Do you know what kind of nasty stuff is in that? It's like poison to your skin."

"Aw, please?" Tabitha pleaded, giving her a good example of 'puppy-dog eyes', but Zarya remained strong.

"No," She repeated firmly, and then she found a distraction; a case of CD players next to the dresser. "Why don't you teach me about CD's instead?"

"Ohh, yeah, I forgot about that," Tabitha replied, jumping over to the case and fingering through the round slits of plastic. Meanwhile, Zarya took a sigh of relief, sitting down on the edge of bed to watch the blonde girl. Music was _way_ better than poisoning herself, right?

Wrong. Turns out, Tabitha liked her music loud. Really, really loud. So loud that Zarya didn't find it hard to imagine that her ears were bleeding. Despite the loudness, Zarya found herself liking it, she always liked the music that she would hear in big cities.

"Isn't this awesome?" Tabitha asked as she stood, her hips already shaking to the beat. "Don't you wish you learned about this sooner?" Zarya smiled nervously, but had a hard time ignoring Tabitha's intoxicating joy, and found herself following Boom Boom's lead, which just made the blonde happier. "Ooh, that's it Zarya, shake those hips. You're a total natural, you know that?"

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><p>But their fun was rather short-lived, as the music was interrupted by a loud knocking at Tabitha's door. "Hey Boom Boom, turn the music down or I'll turn it down for you!" Lance screamed, and Zarya felt a slight tremor; probably a warning shock.<p>

"Maybe we should listen to him?" Zarya asked, her eyes turning dark green again from nervousness, but Tabitha just laughed.

"Why? He's not going to wreck the house, Mystique'll kill him." She replied, but turned down the music anyways. Afterwards, she opened the door a crack and made a small, glowing yellow orb in-between her fingers, flicking it at Lance before slamming the door closed.

"What? Hey!" Lance yelled, but then screamed when Zarya heard a small, distinctive sound of an explosion.

"So I guess that's why they call you Boom Boom?" Zarya asked and Tabitha smiled.

"Yep. I make time bombs of varying strength and size, and I can control when they go off, too. Cool huh?" She said, and slowly a strange look crept up on her face that Zarya didn't recognize. "I just got an idea…"

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><p>Luckily Mystique walked in at that moment to save Zarya from whatever new 'idea' Tabitha had. "Now Boom Boom, let her get some sleep. She has a big day ahead of her tomorrow."<p>

Tabitha pouted, but shrugged. "Okay, fine. Bye Zarya. Luckily we've got all of summer to do everything."

"...So, what's tomorrow?" Zarya asked innocently as Mystique led her down the hallway, assumingly to her new room.

"You start training tomorrow," Mystique replied. "It's about time that you learned to control your transformations."

"Control? I have plenty of control." Zarya replied, suddenly angry as she turned to face the blue-skinned woman, who stopped and pointed her towards the nearest cracked mirror. Zarya gasped at the sight of hair; it was blood red and starting to curl.

"Then what's this?" She asked, and Zarya blushed, only to get angrier at the sight of her eyes then turning a deep forest green. "Your powers are too reliant on your emotions, and we need to fix that, or you'll never be able to go outside without a disguise."

Zarya sighed, rolling her eyes as she focused on returning her hair and eye color to normal. "Fine…" She replied, mimicking Tabitha's whiny tone perfectly, making Mystique smile.

"Well, at least you seem to catch on quickly." Mystique replied before opening a door to reveal an empty room. "This is your room, _please _try not to destroy it, even though no one else bothers. And here, change into these to sleep in."

Zarya nodded as Mystique threw long blue t-shirt and a pair of grey short shorts at her before leaving. Closing the door, Zarya stared at the clothes for a while, not bothering to turn on the lights; her eyes adjusted to the darkness. '_Why do I need special clothes to sleep in?'_ She asked herself, but shrugged. _'Just go with it.'_ After she changed, she looked around at the room. It wasn't like the fancy little hotels she would see tourists living in during their stays in big cities, but at least it wasn't a mud hut.

Yawning loudly, Zarya laid down on the bed stiffly for a few minutes- she never remembered sleeping in a bed before- but managed to fall asleep.

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><p><em><span>{Dream}<span>_

_Zarya was on a small bed, curled up in a ball, crying her eyes out. Only she wasn't fifteen; she was barely five, her hair was a limp grey, sticking to the tear lines on her cheeks._

_Pain was shooting through her body, and she could feel something hot and sticky on her back, where the pain was the worst. That pain fed something deep inside of her, burning white-hot, destroying everything else, this painful fury-_

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><p><em><strong>Downstairs [Pietro]<strong>_

Come midnight, Boom Boom's music finally died down, which Pietro wasn't sure to credit with Lance -since he had said something about it- or Mystique -because she's Mystique.

Either way, Pietro was grateful for some piece and quiet while he watched his shows. Mystique left to do whatever she does at night after apparently showing Zarya to her new room, Fred had gone to bed a while ago, while Lance had gone to make Boom Boom turn down the music so he could do the same. Toad was busy harassing Wanda, and Pietro could only hope that Boom Boom was asleep.

However, this quiet last only an hour at most. That's when he started hearing crashes, which was normal, then heard another, different, but slightly familiar noise...

…Where _did_ he hear that sound before?

Then it hit him.

Zarya.

She made that same noise, that low growling, when Pietro had scared her when he woke her up. _'Oh good God, not again.' _Standing up, he was upstairs in less than two seconds to find Lance, Toad, and Fred hanging out of their bedrooms, staring at the source of the noise; the room furthest down the hallway, which he could only assume to be Zarya's now.

"What are you guys staring at? You're all useless!" Pietro yelled before zipping into the room, slamming their doors closed in the process.

* * *

><p>Even though it was dark, Pietro could see the disaster pretty clearly. The window drapes were shredded, the bedposts were either crooked or ripped completely off, the closet door was hanging off its hinges, and everything, even the walls, had deep gashes in it. It took Pietro a while to find Zarya; though when he did, he didn't like what he saw.<p>

Her hair was a red, curly mess, and her night clothes were ripped. But what caught his attention was her fangs, glinting in the moonlight like two, thin, silver daggers. They were long, three inches at least, and had a slightly hypnotic aspect to them…until they were at his neck.

Not again. He was pinned against the wall, and he was too scared to try to move. "C-come on, Za-Zarya, remember th-the c-conver-versation we had earlier? About **n-not **eating m-me?" He stuttered out, pleading.

If he was about to die, his life better start flashing in front of his eyes, because he **really** wanted to get rid the sight of Zarya's pitch black eyes staring right through his soul. When that didn't happen, he closed his own eyes to wait for the pain.

But after a few seconds, he felt a very different sensation, something hot and wet dripping on his neck. Opening his eyes, he noticed a glistening trail of tears flowing from Zarya's eyes.

She was crying _and_ about to kill him? What was this all about?

"Pietro?" Her voice was coarse and shaking, but before he could say anything, she fell into him, sobbing. He could feel her hands clutching his back, but only felt light scratches, so she must have retracted her claws.

Pietro stood there with Zarya in his arms for a few seconds, dumbfounded. He never dealt with crying girls very well.

But he figured a crying Zarya was better than a furious one, so he nervously fit his arms around her and rubbed her back softly, whispering shakily, "It's okay, it's gonna be okay," Just like his mother used to do when he woke up crying.

But he didn't know if it was going to be okay. He didn't even know _why_ she was crying in the first place.

* * *

><p>It didn't take Zarya long to cry herself to sleep, so he scooped her up and zipped her over to the bed. Laying her down a gently as he could, he turned around to leave when he heard her start to wake up again.<p>

_'She's not going to let me leave, is she?'_ He thought with a sigh as he lay down, wrapping his arms around Zarya's body.

"You're worse than a girlfriend, you know that?" He muttered to her as he tried to get comfortable. "Good thing you're cute." The last thing he remembered was the sweet, natural smell of Zarya's hair before he drifted off to sleep.

* * *

><p><em><strong>The Next Morning<strong>_

Pietro was the first to wake up -he was always the first one up in the Brotherhood- but he had to try and sit up, only to find a mess of black hair sprawled on his chest before he remembered he had fallen asleep with Zarya. _'And I'm __**not**__ going to try to wake her up…so I'm __**stuck**__ here…great…' _He thought angrily; he didn't like being stuck. So he occupied himself by playing with her long hair. _'I swear, if someone sees this, I'm going to kill myself.'_

Luckily, Zarya woke up minutes later, stretching the sleep out of her body, showing off a flexibility that blew Pietro's mind and made his pants pay the price. "_Guten morgen, Zweig*_." She murmured with a faint, dreamy smile.

"What did you say?" He asked, suspicious. Had she insulted him?

"Good morning Twig," She replied in English, wiggling her joints until they made audible cracks. "You are too thin to sleep on ever again."

"Hey!" Pietro yelled, but then stopped, suddenly curious. "Do you remember what happened last night?"

Zarya shrugged. "No, not really. All I remember is falling asleep, being in pain, and then, next thing I knew, I smelled you."

"Me? What do, I smell weird?" Pietro asked with a chuckle.

"Kind of," Zarya replied, leaning in to get another whiff of the white-haired boy. "It's familiar, but unique…I can't place it."

"Okay, but you should get some breakfast while you ponder on how I smell; Mystique will probably want to start training you right away," Pietro said, feeling a bit hot under the collar at her nearness, trying to change the subject.

Zarya sat up straight, suddenly wide awake. "Oh, yeah, thanks. I'll see if Tabitha has some clothes for me to wear." She said, getting up and walking away like nothing had happened.

'_That's probably because in her mind, nothing __**did**__ happen,'_ he reminded himself. _'She's a total Jungle Jane, why would she know anything about flirting or foreplay?'_

'_She's damn good at it, though,' _A darker voice said inside his voice, and he glanced down at the bulge in his pants. Was that morning wood or Zarya's work? Despite everything manly in him, he hoped for it to be morning wood; he didn't need his balls chopped off by Mystique because he got the hots for her new secret weapon.

'_I'll just keep my distance, which shouldn't be hard, I mean, she's gonna have to spend a __**lot**__ of time with Mystique, right? Doesn't even matter if I have to baby-sit her, I'll just throw her over to Boom-Boom.'_ He told himself, and with renewed confidence, sped off to his room to change, and then downstairs for some breakfast himself, making sure to seat himself as far away from Zarya as he could.

* * *

><p><em>AN: Yeah, I know that it's a little early for romance, but Pietro goes through girls faster than you can say 'Bob's your uncle'. Actually, probably faster than you can say 'Bob'._

_*The German is explained during the story...Why does Zarya know German? Because I want her to, that's why._


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